New MCPS Elementary School times
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Anonymous
| This is a funny thread. A LOT of Monday morning quarterbacking. Many of you complaning did not lift a finger to make your objections known - did not attend the meetings or wrtie comments. I attended the info meeting about this change and the BOE discussion about it. One proposal was to switch and let the ES kids go to school first. I cannot tell you how many ES parents said that the early times for ES would be bad...create problems...make aftecare an issue....aloow less time in the morning with families. The ONLY way to make everyone happy on this issue was for MOCO to not provide transportation for MS and HS and transport only ES. But then again, people would have bitched about that. |
Anonymous
Yea, I think MCPS realizes that they can't and will never be able to please *everyone*. |
Anonymous
+1. Well said. As the parent of a now MS kid, Option 2 (ES starts first) totally sucks in several ways. But I saw it as the only viable solution of those presented. The 20 minute delay is insane, esp. for Tier 2. And BOE hasn't thought about the implications in large ESs with 5-6 lunch periods. I was shocked at the number of ES families saying "after care" would be a burden. |
Anonymous
| I did write a letter but it all felt on deaf ears. My understanding is the idea of elementary starting first was not killed by parent complaints but because it was expensive. The board told Starr to find a solution that cost no additional money but still allowed HS to start later. And this is what the administration could do within those parameters. This is a case of the board having an agenda that they wanted implemented and not caring about any additional problems that they created. |
Anonymous
Actually we did all of the above except attend meetings (wrote 2 letters to BOE). When you are 2 parent WOH household attending the meetings is an issue (I know they are in eve, but we want to spend time as family too). I personally blame W cluster parents for this - they dont give S*T about people w/o nannies for drop off pick up and have time to do "sleep ins" with their overentitled teens. Jeez, I sound bitter, but now my kid who gets up at 6:30-7 am wouldnt be in school till 9:25 (Tier 2) and his bus ride home will be at least 20 min instead of 5 due to traffic. |
Anonymous
PP here. I have NO issue with you because you did write letters and participate in the process. My comments are more directed at folks who are complaining now but did nothing when this change was in the consideration phase. Most of us work and we all want family time but now I hope we all see that we were outflanked by a vocal minority who DID attend these meetings and do whatever to make their voices heard. But I realized early on that on this issue, the squeaky wheel was going to get the oil. And my situation was somewhat unique - I am a HS parent who was AGAINST the later start. So I f I am out there fighting, I know doggone well that ES parents should have been. |
Anonymous
| The solution of elementary schools starting early was rejected because it didn't address the underlying problem - the goal was for NONE of the schools to start that early because of the impact on health. Getting young children up for a super early start time is actually not a solution either. There would be serious complaining about elementary kids needing to be at the bus at 6:30 or 7 am, too. The smartest solutions for scheduling were not financially viable. As always, the compromise really didn't fix the problem. It is too bad they couldn't figure out how to push high school while leaving everything else alone. |
Anonymous
Any suggestions? I can't think of any, and I didn't hear any from anybody else, either. |
Anonymous
BCC parents - a small, yet vocal and highly entitled group |
Anonymous
PP here. Not a BCC parent. I was against the change and I was vocal about it. But at the end of the day, that group of parents mobilized, used the political process and got things done. Many people here are complaining that times are too late for ES kids - why didn't you relay your concerns to the BOE? Because I will tell you, more than a few ES parents got up and said that they did not want an earlier time for the ES kids. I guess my point is that if folks did not participate in the process, you cannot really fault the parents who did. |
Anonymous
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Isn't it odd that Fairfax was able to solve this problem.
High schools in FFX are starting at an actual reasonable time (not a token extra 10 minutes) and elementary school kids are not getting home at 5pm from the bus. Why can't MCPS learn from across the river? Its not that far, they don't need a big travel budget. |
Anonymous
| And Fairfax has such big budget issues this year that they are considering eliminating HS sports. If MoCo didn't care about the price tag they would have had more options. |
Anonymous
Fairfax was able to solve the problem (if you call it solving the problem) by having the middle schools start ridiculously early, instead of the high schools. I'm glad that MCPS didn't do that. |
Anonymous
| Honestly, factoring in budget constraints and everything else, this probably is the only solution. It is a compromise - the high schools don't start late enough, and the elementary schools start too late...that is unfortunately how it goes. Perfect would require far more money for increased bussing, and might cause traffic issues. I don't have a better solution, but I'm not complaining about the one they put forward. It isn't ideal... |
Anonymous
Then nothing should have changed in the first place. And it would have saved 12 million dollars of budget money. |